1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multiview autostereoscopic display having an extended viewing zone enabling the viewer to see an autostereoscopic image from various positions.
2. Description of the Related Art
A binocular parallax method is an effective method for providing an autostereoscopic image in a flat panel display. The binocular parallax method provides a three dimensional image by separating the viewing zones of a left eye and a right eye of a stereopair in order to allow the left and right eyes of a viewer to see different images. A method of separating the left eye image and the right eye image includes a lenticular method, using a lenticular lens array, and a parallax barrier method. According to related art technology, a set of columns, for example, odd columns, are displayed for the left eye image and even columns are displayed for the right eye image. Since the left eye image and the right eye image area are displayed on the same display panel, however, there is a problem in that the resolution of each image is not more than half the full resolution of the display panel.
As LCD panels having a fast response are recently being developed, the presentation of an autostereoscopic image having the full resolution of an LCD panel may be possible by using a frame that serially displays a left eye image and a right eye image. In this case, both the left eye image and the right eye image are displayed with the full resolution of the display panel. In this system, in order to provide a sequential display of the frames, a means for displaying the left eye image and the right eye image by selectively switching between the left eye image and the right eye image is required. For example, the resolution of a three dimensional image can be improved using a polarization switch using polarization characteristics. However, a conventional three dimensional image apparatus has a very narrow viewing zone because the conventional three dimensional image apparatus only provides the image in two viewpoints. Thus, when a viewer moves his head, the left and right images are reversed so that the viewing of a three dimensional image is improper. To solve the problem, an eye-tracking method is used. However, the eye-tracking method has the limitation of only applying to a single viewer.